Keto Ginger Blueberry Bars

Keto Ginger Blueberry Bars

This bar is naturally sweet with a delicious texture. I was able to use half as much sweetener. Yes this bar is higher on the carb/sugar side because of the blueberries of course. I'd say this is how you get a handful of your berries in a day. Your family and kids will love them. Enjoy!
Servings: 12 Bars
Calories: 337kcal

Ingredients

For The Dry Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

Instructions

For The Dry Ingredients

  • Add fresh peeled ginger to your Ninja and pulse until finely chopped. Next add walnuts to the ginger and pulse until walnuts are broken up.
  • Add remaining dry ingredients to the ginger walnut mix in a bowl and set aside.
  • Mix the dry ingredients together before adding the wet ingredients.
  • In a small pot over low heat add the cocoa butter and coconut butter. Stir until melted. It's important that the oil is hot going into the bowl so that it all incorporates well. The mix should get a dough-like ball by the end.
  • Flatten out the dough ball with a spoon into a glass baking dish. Save some almonds for the topping because it's pretty. Almonds stick on top beautifully, you just need to use the spoon to smooth them over.
  • Put in freezer for 15 minutes or put in fridge for 30 minutes before cutting into them.

Notes

I keep these sweet treats in the fridge and take them out five minutes before I know I’m going to eat them. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Bar | Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 8g

Keto Coffee Chocolate Bars

Keto Coffee Chocolate Bars

What's not to love when you've got chocolate and coffee mixed with high quality fat plus a great amount of protein. The texture is smooth yet it has a delicious crunch. Not too sweet and perfect if you love chocolate. These bars are very satisfying. This recipe will make 12 bars each with 8.5 grams of protein.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 12 Bars
Calories: 392.4kcal

Equipment

  • Brownie Pan
  • Ninja Blender

Ingredients

The Bars

The Top

Instructions

For The Bars

  • In a Ninja blender add pecans, almonds and blend. Put them in the bowl.
  • Add coffee beans to the Ninja and blend. Put the ground coffee in the bowl.
  • Do not blend the pumpkin seeds! Those are good whole. Just add those in the bowl.
  • Add the rest of your dry ingredients, allulose, inulin, vanilla, cocoa powder and salt. Mix with a spoon and set aside.
  • Grab a small pot and over medium heat add COCOA butter and COCONUT butter. These are not the same thing! Once melted, add the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until a mush ball forms.
  • Get your smaller size brownie pan and dump the mush ball in. Flatten with your spoon and put in freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Chocolate Top

  • Add the Lily's chocolate and butter to a small pan and melt before drizzling over the bars. If you don't have Lily's. You can take chunks (about 1/2 a bar) of unsweetened chocolate and add 1/4 cup VitaFiber syrup. This is delicious too!

Notes

It is 102 grams of protein for the whole batch. That’s 8.5 grams for each bar! I keep these sweet treats in the fridge and take them out five minutes before I know I’m going to eat them. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Bar | Calories: 392.4kcal | Carbohydrates: 12.6g | Protein: 8.5g | Fat: 33.8g | Saturated Fat: 19.3g | Fiber: 7.3g | Sugar: 2.5g

Keto Sriracha Avocado Sauce

Keto Sriracha Avocado Sauce

Very flavorful, all you need is a ninja or food blender. This is a thick and rich sauce that works wonderfully in hot foods as well as with cold foods too. If you like spice, this is the sauce for you. No need to spend tons of money on a bottle when you can make it so easily yourself.
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Fresh garlic and ginger works best.
  • Add your garlic, ginger, apple cider vinegar, avocado, red chili pepper, oil, salt and black pepper.
  • Blend together until smooth.
  • Add to your favorite snacks or dinners!

Notes

Will last for a day in fridge. Honestly, it would probably last for a couple of day’s but I’m sure it would be gone before than. 

Keto Chocolate Pudding

Easy as instant pudding. No heating or waiting to cool down. Enjoy right away!

Keto Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Start with beating cream cheese using a handheld mixer until soft. Add in the half & half and mix on low until incorporated. Turn mixer on high until soft peaks form.
  • Add in the no sugar sweetener, vanilla, cocoa powder and dash of salt and continue to mix.

Notes

If you don’t have the cream cheese blended well, you might get little chunks. This recipe is more dense than when using heavy cream. 

Keto Cream Frosting

Keto Cream Frosting

Keto Cream Frosting is perfect for frosting a cake or having it by it's self as a vanilla mousse. Add some chocolate powder and you've got yourself a chocolate mousse dessert or chocolate cream frosting!!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Whip up the heavy cream until firm peaks and set aside. In a separate bowl add in the cream cheese, vanilla and ketopig's sweetener mix and whip up until combined. 
  • For the last step add in the whip to the cream and continue to blend with hand mixer. If you are adding chocolate powder you'll want to add more more liquid to this recipe.
  • For example: Add 1/2 cup heavy cream if you're using 1/4 cup cocoa powder to make the chocolate mousse.

Notes

It's 2 tbsp of Monkfruit sweetener if that's what you're currently using.

No Sugar Sweetener

KetoPig Sweetener

Try this sweetener mix for all your baking needs, or as a perfect low carb substitute for sweetening your morning coffee. Compared to sugar alcohols it's healthier for your gut (no bloating) and doesn't have that weird aftertaste. It is something I've found to be delicious and have been doing now for the last year. It's a true one-to-one substitution if you like things really sweet.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Author: tasty

Instructions

  • Just add the Inulin, TMG, Allulose powder and mix.
  • Double or triple recipe if needed.

Notes

It’s just 3 parts inulin, 1 part TMG and 1 part allulose powder. If you’re wanting some for your coffee add 1 part collagen and a tsp salt. If you’re looking for an awesome set of canisters to hold the powdered sugar in the stainless steel are the best!
Tip: The powdered allulose and inulin are very fine and act like powdered sugar so keeping this in mind when handling it. Standing in a cloud of powder isn’t fun.
keto caramel

Keto Caramel

These keto candy apples are such a sweet treat around the holidays. This caramel works so well and is soft yet hardens up just enough to hold it’s shape without harming your little ones teeth. This keto recipe grabs all the extra goodies like sprinkles, chopped up chocolate and other candies with no fuss. You’re going to have so much fun making them loving that they’re sugar free and that this caramel is not to hard nor too sticky. There is absolutely no browning anything with this recipe but the appearance, taste and texture will leave you wondering if it’s real caramel. So make something sweet to celebrate the holidays that are just around the corner. Have fun and let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Keto Caramel For Candy Apples

Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 14 Apples
Author: Gina Scheller

Ingredients

Instructions

  • First make your slurry with the arrowroot and either milk or heavy cream. You only need 3 tbsp of liquid to mix in arrowroot and set aside. You will put this in towards the end.  
  • Over medium heat, add the butter and monk fruit sweetener (golden brown helps with color.)
  • Next add the Vitafiber and mix well. Let cook on medium heat for about ten minutes making sure all the sugar crystals have dissolved. 
  • Add only the heavy cream at this step, not the slurry mixture.
  • Add the chocolate chips you have. I've used both regular chocolate and the caramel chocolate; both work great and does not take over the caramel flavor because you're only putting in a small amount. This will give you the color to make it look like caramel.
  • Turn heat to low and add in your slurry. Once mixed, turn heat back up for 5 minutes. Let the sauce get really hot to the point of making some small bubbles. 
  • Remove from heat and wait a few minutes to cool just a bit before adding the caramel extract if you decide to add it. 
  • The magic happens when it's cooling! It will be a perfect consistency when it's not hot to the touch. I had to heat the sauce back up couple times during the apple dipping and so I can tell you it reheats nicely. 
  • Pro tip: add the sprinkles/candy toppings as soon as you pull the apple out of the caramel so it will stick. If you wait even just 10 seconds it will harden but not a problem just re-dunk the apple. If the apples are cold right out of the fridge it will only help the hardening of the caramel. The end product is a matte caramel not sticky to the touch. Makes for biting into them more fun and less messy too! 

Notes

You can put the caramel in molds and freeze them to make keto caramel candies. After you take the candy out of the molds, let them sit at room temperature. If you leave them in the fridge they will stay gooey. You can also save to reheat and have a caramel sauce too!
keto caramel
keto caramel
keto caramel
Beef helper

Keto Beef Helper

This meal is so good and is a perfect base for other style easy one pan dinners. Just change out some of the veggies for cheddar cheese cream sauce and you’ll get Keto cheeseburger helper. It’s amazing how cabbage and beef go so well together. I would say the cabbage reminds me of noodles and is definitely satisfying. It’s a weekly favorite around here and goes nicely by its self, on top of mixed lettuce or on top of cauliflower rice! This very filling dinner idea is way to easy and delicious to not share. 

Share questions and comments below and I’ll try to get back to you asap. Thank you!

Keto Beef Helper

American Hamburger Helper Keto Style!
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 12 Servings
Author: Gina Scheller

Ingredients

  • 2 Pounds Beef
  • Cooking Oil/Bacon Fat
  • 1 Big Red onion Chopped
  • 1-2 Carrots Chopped
  • 1 Cups Cabbage Chopped
  • 1 Cup Red Cabbage Chopped
  • 4 Green Onions Chopped
  • 3 Green Peppers Chopped
  • 4 Clove Garlic Chopped
  • 2 Tsp Salt
  • 2 Tsp White Pepper
  • Cracked Black Pepper
  • 2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

Instructions

  • Over medium heat start sautéing the onions first for about 5 minutes before adding in the carrots. 
  • Continue to sauté onions and carrots for a few minutes before adding in your beef. 
  • Salt and pepper your meat as soon as you put it in your pan.
  • You can chop all the veggies up a head of time or you can cut them up as you go.
  • Chop up the cabbage to the size you want. Keep in mind the cabbage will shrink and cook down. 
  • Add the chopped green onions, green peppers and garlic last. 
  •  I find it easier to chop as you go and you'll also use less dishes to do this;) 
  • Continue to cook over medium heat for another 5-10 minutes or until done. 
Keto Cauli Mac

Ketopig’s Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

 

Ketopig's Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time25 mins
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Author: Ketopig

Ingredients

What You Need

Instructions

Turn oven tempter to 350 degrees F.

  • Clean and cut the florets. Steam the florets for 10 minutes over medium heat or until soft. 
  • To make sauce pour the heavy cream in a heavy bottom pot. Add the cream cheese, mustard powder, smoked paprika, garlic, white pepper and whisk. 
  • Add the 1 cup of cheddar to the cheese sauce and mix until melted. 
  • Remove the florets from the heat and put in a baking dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the florets.
  • Sprinkle on the smoked paprika, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese and bacon. Save the green onions until after you take out of the oven.
  • Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Notes

I prefer to steam the florets because it's the easiest and fastest way to have dinner on the table in less than thirty minutes. The cauliflower holds water if you boil it. I have also baked it before adding the cheese sauce and it seems like a lot of unnecessary work and time.
I like using the mustard powder because it compliments the cheese sauce without the vinegar from regular bottled mustard. 
Depending on what kind of cheese you use you may or may not need the arrowroot powder. For example the pre-shredded cheese has thickeners in it to keep it from sticking together, you won't need the arrowroot but if you're like me and you shred your own quality grass fed cheese you may want that tsp of arrowroot powder. I've made it without just to see and it's not as thick. It really isn't something to worry about if you don't have arrowroot handy. 
I also tried mascarpone cheese in this recipe instead of cream cheese and it was so delicious creamy and rich.  

 

Keto Cauli Mac
Keto Swiss Roll

Keto Swiss Roll

In my four years on the ketogenic diet, I’ve really struggled to find a substitute for a traditional cake that fits many of the recipe requirements our family has adopted on our journey. That means no grains and no gums, and as few carbs as possible, all wrapped up in something that is as close as possible to a traditional bakery treat.

Wheat flour has so many negatives to it apart from the sheer number of carbohydrates and it’s astronomical glycemic load. But my experiments with almond flour, most people’s go-to substitute for wheat, have consistently been too dense and often gritty. My exploration into alternative flours has yielded so many delicious dishes made with combinations of cassava and coconut flours, and I knew I was within striking distance of something amazing.

And by amazing, I mean a chocolate Swiss cake roll. I can’t keep my husband out of it.

I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments!

Keto Swiss Roll
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Keto Swiss Roll

This low carb Swiss roll cake is super easy to make and has perfect texture! I'm so excited about this recipe because it doesn't taste gritty or "eggy" with only 4 eggs and no grains, no almond flour and no gums! If your weakness has "Little Debbie" or "Hostess" stamped all over it, this reduced carb substitute will have you snacking (nearly) guilt free.
Prep Time10 mins
Total Time25 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Author: KetoPig

Ingredients

What you need for wet ingredients

What you need for the dry ingredients

What you need for the cream filling

Instructions

  • Pre heat oven to 350 F 
  • You'll need a large pan 10x16 or larger. A baking sheet with raised sides works perfectly.
  • Whisk all the wet ingredients first and set a side. 
  • In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. the  it to the liquid mixture. 
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing slowly until consistent like a thick cake batter.
  • Spread the batter in your pan. You do not need to spread it to the sides, only enough to have it look evenly flat. It will spread the rest of the way on its own when it gets hot. 
  • Place in the oven to bake. It also doesn't need long time to cook because it's spread thinner then normal cake. If you're making a regular cake in a 8x10 or a 8in round pan with this recipe, I would bake it a little longer, so add 5-10 minutes. Keeping a watchful eye so that you don't burn it.  
  • You can check it making sure it's done when a tooth pick comes out clean and you'll be able to smell that it's done too. Let it cool for about an hour.
  • While the cake is cooling, make the cream filling. Whip the heavy cream, sweetener and vanilla first. After you get that good and smooth you can add in the heavy cream and continue to whip it with a blender until it resembles cream frosting or I like to call it mousse. Yum! 
  • When your cake is room temp, frost it with all that delicious cream! Take the sides of the parchment paper and start to roll it up using the paper. You shouldn't have to touch the cake at all. When you have it rolled it up, leave it in the paper and put it in the fridge for at least an hour before slicing.  
Keto Swiss Roll
Keto swiss roll
Keto meat loaf

Keto Pig’s Meat Loaf

I love a good meat loaf. Ever since starting keto, I have been able to enjoy more of what meat loaf has to offer, like all that delicious grass fed meat! However, when you normally make meat loaf you use a ton of bread crumbs to give it that tender texture. I’m so excited to share my low carb, grain-free recipe with all of you. This moist meat loaf that is full of flavor will make your mouth water and having your whole family going back for seconds. 

KetoPig's Meat Loaf

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time1 hr
Total Time1 hr 10 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 12
Author: KetoPig

Ingredients

What you need for the bread crumbs

What you need for the meat

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400 F. 
  • Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
  • In another bowl add the eggs, worcestershire and mustard. Blend thoroughly with a fork.
  • Add the meat to the egg mixture and with a spoon mash it together.
  • Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined
  • Press the mixture firmly into a regular size loaf pan, then place in the oven to bake for xxx minutes.

Notes

I use a 5 X 10 Inch bread loaf pan to bake this in. 

 

Keto meat loaf

Keto Butter Cups

 

Keto Butter Cups

These are the perfect treat for your loved ones on Valentine's Day or any other day that is special to you! Surprise your friends and family with these easy, fast and delicious low carb treats. 
Prep Time20 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 24
Author: KetoPig

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a pot on low heat. 
  • In a separate bowl add in almond butter, vanilla, vitafiber, monkfruit sweetener, butter and salt. 
  • Combine throughly and you may want to heat 30 sec in microwave if you had your almond butter stored in the fridge. Set this aside and prepare your mini cups.
  • Take the melted chocolate and fill all the cups less then half way about a quarter full. Put in the freezer for about ten minutes.
  • Take the filling and fill to about 3/4's, leaving just enough room for the top layer of chocolate. There is more then enough butter filling to fill 24 cups so be generous. 
  • Then add the rest of the melted chocolate to each cup and replace in freezer for about 10 minutes. 
  • Store them in the fridge or room temperature if you like them a bit softer.   
 
Coconut cluster

Keto Coconut Clusters

If you’ve ever seen coconut clusters at the store I’m sure you’ve picked up the bag only to find out that you can’t have them. All that sugar and honey is a no-go for keto or low carb. I remember seeing these and immediately thinking I’m sure I can’t have them because most companies add sugar in some form (sometimes in multiple forms!) to everything but ultimately I was excited to think just how easy to would be to make them myself.  

With very few ingredients this keto friendly recipe is a breeze to make! It is perfect for a sweet treat, and what a treat they are for the tummy too! Getting through the holidays with keto and VitaFiber as my secret weapon has helped me more than I ever expected. I am starting off the new year with a bang and ready for success… I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned and happy to share it with all of you!

Keto Coconut Clusters

Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time5 mins
Total Time15 mins
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In your toaster oven or in the oven, lightly toast the coconut flakes, being careful not to burn them. 
  • I used the toaster oven but if you want a more accurate toast then cook the coconut in a pan over medium heat continually stirring until lightly brown. 
  • In a bowl add the seeds, cinnamon, vanilla and monkfruit sweetener. Stir until combined. 
  • Take the warm coconut flakes and add them to the seed mix. 
  • Drizzle the VitaFiber into the mix. It helps the VitaFiber spread evenly if the coconut flakes are still warm. 
  • After you have combined everything throughly, lay out on a piece of parchment paper to dry out, using a spatula to compress into a shallow loaf shape.
  • After a few hours of drying time, gently break the loaf into cluster snack sized pieces to enjoy!
 
Keto Cluster
Keto Cluster
Keto Cluster
keto Teriyaki

Keto Teriyaki Chicken

Sweet and savory recipes are on top of my list for comfort foods. Yet they’re rarely healthy and instead of giving you comfort they give you bloating and upset tummies as a bonus. If you’ve been looking into keto for weight loss, you’re about to receive much more than just a smaller pant size.

There is something quite satisfying about being able to eat those familiar flavors and feeling recharged, not tired and heavy. Keto comfort foods do exactly that! This low carb recipe is one of my family’s favorite dishes and thanks to VitaFiber we are able to enjoy some of our favorite foods again. Here’s to having 2 or 3 helpings and not feeling bad about it.

Keto Teriyaki Chicken

Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time30 mins
Total Time50 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese
Author: KetoPig

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a bowl add all of the wet ingredients along with the arrowroot and monkfruit sweetener. Stir with a hand whisk and set aside. 
  • Cut up all the chicken into bite sized pieces. In your wok heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until chicken is mostly done.
  • While the chicken is cooking, chop up the garlic and toss in with the chicken. 
  • Add salt and pepper to taste before adding the wet ingredients. The coconut aminos is very bland, unlike soy sauce, so don't be afraid to use salt.
  • After you add the wet ingredients to the chicken add the chopped broccoli to your wok and cook until broccoli is tender about 15 minutes. 
  • By this time your sauce should be looking thick and smelling delicious. 
  • This goes perfect with cauliflower rice or by its self. 

 

keto Teriyaki
keto Teriyaki
keto Teriyaki
keto Teriyaki

Keto Pfeffernüsse

Have you ever had a Pfeffernüsse? As a special request from my husband, this was my first time making them… And wow, let me just say these are fantastic! They have a lot more zing than gingerbread, making them a bit more of an “adult” cookie that goes great with coffee or something stronger.

Try them out and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Keto Pfeffernüsse

This low carb keto cookie is soft and spicy delicious. A German cookie with a healthy twist.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Total Time25 mins
Course: Dessert
Servings: 30 30
Author: Ketopig

Ingredients

Instructions

  • If your cookie dough is ready, preheat oven to 350F. 
  • In a bowl add the dry ingredients and mix. 
  • In a sauce pan add the Vitafiber, butter and melt over low heat while stirring continuously. Remove from heat add in the anise and eggs and mix well before adding that into the dry ingredients. Wrap and place in the fridge for two or more hours. 
  • Wrap and place in the fridge for two or more hours.
  • Roll into 1 and 1/2 inch sized balls and place on a baking sheet, flattening slightly if desired. Bake time is 15 minutes for all 30 cookies. 
  • Allow to cool for 20 minutes, then frost or drizzle with chocolate glaze.
 
Pfeffernüsse Dough

Keto Cheesecake

Keto Cheesecake

Best keto cheesecake! This keto recipe makes 12 servings and is 10 sugar alcohol carbs per piece with all the monkfruit sweetener. If you want to cut the carbs in half use half as much monkfruit sweetener and then sweeten to taste with stevia drops before adding the eggs. Pre-heat your oven to 350F and cook time is 50-65 minutes depending on what pan you use.

Ingredients

For The Crust

For The Filling

  • 4 Eggs and 1 egg yoke room temperature
  • 3 Packs 8oz cream cheese room temperature
  • 1/2 Cup Monkfruit Sweetener
  • 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Squeeze Lemon Juice

For The Cream Topping

Instructions

  • Directions
  • We’ll make the crust first and prepare the filling later while the crust is in the oven.  If you love the crust and are using pie pans make two batches for each pie pan. However I think it’s too much crust so I cut 1 batch in half to have a thinner crust. I prepared this recipe in a 9″ spring form pan, or, this recipe will fit nicely in two 8-9 inch pie pans. Put in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes.
  • I also put the pie pans or spring pan on top of another baking sheet to help from scorching the bottom. I think it cooks better that way.
  • While the crust is in the oven, start on the filling. In a bowl combine the cream cheese and sugar, mixing until smooth. Add the vanilla, lemon juice and eggs. With a hand mixer on low/medium speed, whip until combined. I have tried the soft cream cheese (lactose free cream cheese) and it doesn’t work as well… The filling always sinks every time. Use the hard cream cheese and you’ll have a delicious no-fall cheesecake.
  • If you are using the spring form pan, make sure to spray/butter the interior sides so the filling doesn’t stick causing a crack in the middle. I used coconut oil spray and sprayed it after the crust cooked and immediately before putting the filling in the pan.
  • Pour the filling mixture onto the hot crust and return it to the oven, still at 350 degrees. The cook time for a 9 inch spring pan will be about 60-65 minutes, or for the two 9″ pie pans, plan a baking time of 50 minutes.
  • When its done, turn off oven and leave in the oven with door open until cool enough, 1 to 2 hours, to go in fridge.

Directions For Cream Topping

  • The cream topping goes on after the cheesecake cools completely. Whip the heavy cream until you get whipped cream and in a separate bowl whip the cream cheese with the sweetener and vanilla. Combine these two after both are whipped separately. This helps you get a smooth cream with no chunks. Spread evenly across the top and you're ready for the  most delicious cheesecake of your life.

Notes

I used a spring cake pan.
keto stuffing

Keto Stuffing

Thanksgiving stuffing (or dressing depending on where you’re from) is a must in our home for the holidays. Keto breads make this dish possible and just as delicious as the real thing. This recipe is based on how much turkey dripping/gravy you have. It’s up to you how much stuffing you want, so adjust measurements with that in mind. I love the texture of having two different breads. The keto no-corn bread has a rough texture while the keto low carb bread is more soft. It’s also pretty and tastes more like the real thing.

Thanksgiving stuffing Keto

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo

Ingredients

What you need

  • 1 pan Keto no-corn bread Keto No CornBread
  • 1 loaf Keto low-carb bread Keto Loaf Bread
  • 10 oz Turkey breakfast sausage
  • 4-5 Celery Stalks
  • 1 Onion Chopped
  • 24 Herbs and Seasonings Bragg's Brand (as much as desired)
  • Turkey drippings as much as desired

Instructions

Directions

  • Make the two different breads ahead of time (one or two days before) so it's not a rush when Thanksgiving comes. Cut the bread into approximately one inch cubes and put in the baking dish you'll use. 
  • Leave this dish out on the counter with cloth over it for the bread to dry. The day of Thanksgiving, lightly saute the onions and celery in a pan.
  • Add the sausage and finish cooking until barely brown. In the baking dish were you have the bread add the veggies and meat.
  •  Toss gently without breaking up the bread, then add a generous amount turkey drippings/gravy (your choice) and put in the oven at 350 F. covered with foil for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and continue baking for a further ten minutes if desired for a crispy top.

keto stuffing

Happy Thanksgiving!

Keys to Ketogenic Diet Success

5 Keys To Keto Success

My 5 Keys to Keto Success

The idea behind the ketogenic diet is simple… Get your body into a state of fat-burning (ketosis) and you’ll lose weight and improve your health. But there are so many details, and I get so many questions about what my journey was like, how many grams or macros or calories you should or shouldn’t have, as though there’s a magic set of numbers or a formula that is going to guarantee success.

I have some good news, and some bad news.

There isn’t a simple formula to winning back your health with keto. But, there are a number of simple ideas (with some more complex knowledge behind them) that will help you get the early success you need to put you on the path to your goals.

This post is about sharing those “lightbulb” moments where something really clicked on and I understood what my body was doing and why, and more importantly how I could control both my mental state and my body very effectively with what I put in my mouth.

This knowledge came to me in five key realizations…

  • Hormones Control Your Mind and Your Body
  • Eating Healthy Fat, Not Fiber, is the Key to Not Being Hungry
  • Your Body Needs Real, Bio-Available Electrolytes
  • Many Plants, Even Good Plants at the Wrong Times, Cause Inflammation
  • Healthy Whole Grain Goodness is a Horrible Lie

Keto

I’m calling these my 5 Keys to Keto Success, and I hope by sharing them with you that it will accelerate your keto journey.

I’m going to talk about each of these below, and why they have a huge effect on your body. And where these pieces of advice run counter to the conventional wisdom we have all been exposed to, I’m also going to try to explain why that conventional wisdom is not only misguided, but in some cases an outright lie that can ruin your health.

As always, I am not a doctor, and if you’re under the care of a professional you should involve them in your health decisions. Every person, and every person’s body, is different. But these keys have changed my life and the lives of my family so much for the better, and I’m hoping they will do the same for you!

Hormones Control Your Mind and Your Body

We all think we’re in charge. You couldn’t be more wrong.

When you’re hungry, and I mean really hungry, there isn’t anything that’s going to come between you and that syrup drenched waffle with the strawberries on top. And it’s not because you’re weak, or because you don’t know better, or because your rational mind doesn’t want to say no. It’s because our bodies respond in a much stronger way to the chemical signals in them that have kept our species alive and kicking. That pitiful bit of strength that you think of as “willpower” is no match for biology.

These chemical signals are called hormones. Hormones drive our behavior, and the hormones our bodies produce in response to the foods we do or don’t eat are some of the most powerful in our body. They are an opponent bigger than any of us and you’ll lose if you fight them head on.

Keto is hormone jiujitsu. Instead of blocking and punching your hormones to try to fend off hunger, you meld with them and use their momentum and power to your own advantage.

So let’s understand what the key dietary hormones are and what they do in our bodies. Here’s the first two.

  • Insulin. Everyone hears about insulin because diabetes is becoming a worldwide epidemic. You probably know insulin goes up when you eat sugar. Actually, insulin goes up to some extent when you eat anything. It just goes up A LOT when you eat carbohydrates. But why? Insulin’s job in your body is to signal fat cells in your body to pull glucose (carbohydrate energy) out of your blood and store it. Elevated glucose in your blood will destroy your kidneys, so your pancreas cranks out insulin to tell your liver, muscle and fat tissues to start soaking it up to protect the body. And, it also shuts down production of our next hormone, glucagon.
  • Glucagon. Glucagon is insulin’s mirror twin. Where insulin tells your fat cells to save glucose, glucagon is the hormone that signals the release of fat back into the blood stream. This is because our body needs energy, and there’s not a ready supply elsewhere, so we need to go get that energy out of the long term storage (which is to say your big belly or your thighs or where ever that adipose tissue has made a not-so-welcome home on you.)

An important thing to understand is that insulin and glucagon are opposites, and your body treats them this way. If your insulin is turned on, you are in fat storage mode and your body will not produce glucagon. Similarly, if glucagon is turned on, your body is in the mode of releasing stored fat (not storing it), and insulin is turned off. Your body simply does not produce both of these hormones at the same time, and one or the other of them is always on depending on what your body needs.

So you can probably guess, we want glucagon to be turned on most of the time if we’re trying to lose weight. That’s simple enough. But it sounds like turning off insulin and turning on glucagon means is going to translate into something like “hungry” in our metabolism. So it’s a good thing that our mental “hungry” state isn’t tied directly to these two hormones!

Let’s talk about our next two hormones, the ones that directly relate to that sense of hunger:

  • Ghrelin. The sense of needing to eat, right now, urgently, pass the potatoes and oh just one more cookie comes from ghrelin. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. It’s the sumo wrestler in the room and it will not be ignored. When your ghrelin is high enough, you will eat whatever is in front of you, no matter what it is, no matter how unhealthy. Ghrelin is produced directly by your stomach and it signals the animal instinct parts of your brain, including the hypothalamus and the reward system pathways in the amygdala that deal with addiction and emotions. Ghrelin’s nickname is “hangry” in case you didn’t know.
  • Leptin. Leptin is the hormone that signals you to stop eating. That sense of being full and satisfied is leptin doing its job. You can think of leptin as the easy-going referee that rings the bell and tells our sumo wrestler ghrelin to go take a break in the corner. The easiest way to control leptin is to put foods in your body that turn leptin production on. We’re going to talk about what foods do that in the next section, and you should prepare to be shocked.

Ghrelin SumoLike insulin and glucagon, leptin and ghrelin are active at different times in the body and one or the other is predominately at work at any given point in time. When we’re trying to lose weight, it’s advantageous to have leptin raised and ghrelin low. When ghrelin is asleep, it’s not hard to pass on the waffles.

In a healthy person, it takes at least four hours after your last meal before your hormones “switch” between modes. Ironically, this is roughly the window of time that many nutritionists recommend spacing your daily snacks and meals. So while you’ll never be (very) hungry, your insulin level is never going to drop and you’ll never be burning any body fat. Longer eating windows and intermittent fasting aren’t about calorie restriction as much as they are about insulin reduction. And low insulin is an enormous enabler of good health.

If you know at a high level how these hormones work, you already have some very powerful tools for understanding how to get the results you want out of your body without willpower or mental fatigue. But before we leave this topic, it’s worth pointing out what happens when our cells stop responding to these hormones properly because they’re drowning in one or the other of them all day long.

All of these hormones have an effect on our brain and our behavior, and that’s a good thing. When we need food, it’s important that our body tells us, especially thousands of years ago when food might be scarce. It told us what was needed and what we should be doing, like when it is time to turn off the TV and go out hunting.

We live in different times now, and food is plentiful, so these signaling mechanisms are less important to actual survival. But they can still be life-or-death for some of us, especially if our bodies stop responding to them. It’s like an alarm clock that never stops ringing. You pay a lot of attention at first, but later you have no choice but to ignore the racket. Hormone resistance, where our cells essentially start ignoring these ringing chemical signals, will slowly but surely kill you.

The major hormone resistance disease we are all familiar with is diabetes. Type 2 diabetes begins where your cells stop responding to insulin, and as a result those cells stop taking up glucose from the bloodstream. Your pancreas doesn’t understand. It just keeps seeing glucose floating around, so it makes more insulin. Because there’s so much insulin in the bloodstream, the cells become even more likely to ignore it, becoming even more resistant. The pancreas is working overtime and is eventually headed for burnout (pancreatitis or cancer), but it eventually just gives up. The kidneys are trying to pick up the slack and working as a last resort to get glucose out of the blood. The excess blood sugar starts wreaking havoc on the circulatory and nervous systems, leading to neuropathy, blindness and other complications.

Excess glucose is bad news, but the other thing you should know about insulin is that it too is a powerful inflammatory agent that affects your entire body. High levels of insulin actually irritate the lining of your blood vessels, which plays a role in coronary artery disease. Some cardiologists are starting to look not just at blood lipids in general, but inflammation, as risk markers for cardiac events. And it may be that lipids and cholesterol actually are protective responses to inflammation, not the source of the problem. Some neurologists even associate high levels of insulin with inflammation of the nervous system. You might know nervous system inflammation by the names Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Diabetes, and all its complications, along with several other major health problems is related to the side effects of having too much circulating insulin.

It seems counter-intuitive to think that something our body makes and is so central to processing food could be associated with these devastating diseases, but there is increasing research tying all of these conditions together. What should be clear is that limiting the amount and the total time that insulin is circulating in your bloodstream is good for so much more than just managing your body weight.

If you are eating three meals a day four or five hours apart, and fitting snacks in between meals, your insulin levels are never down, and you are training your body to be both insulin and leptin resistant. Yet somehow, that’s the advice we’re given.

And the foods that produce glucose (and encourage ghrelin) aren’t just white sugar. It’s any carbohydrates. Metabolically, all starches from all carbohydrates are ultimately converted to blood glucose and require insulin secretion. Some may be “faster” or “slower” (their glycemic index), some may cause a huge insulin burst instead of a longer term release, but they all get processed by exactly the same metabolic machinery.

We’ve been getting decades worth of advice to shovel in carbohydrates morning, noon and night that spike our insulin and train our bodies to store fat continuously. Is it any wonder so many of us are starting to look like our mental picture of Sumo Ghrelin or fighting the muffin top bursting out our of spandex tights?

Our goal is to lower our insulin for a large part of the day. That means eating less often if we can, allowing those windows of time to open up where our glucagon is elevated and our body starts to enjoy burning stored fat again.

So how do we do that without being hungry? What do we eat instead of carbohydrates?

Eating Healthy Fats, Not Fiber, is the Key to Not Being Hungry

WHOA.

So again, the conventional wisdom is wrong. We have been told over and over again to eat a low-fat diet. We hear “you are what you eat” and we’re told to stay away from butter or avocados or coconut oil because they will go “right to your thighs.” This advice seems appealingly obvious and we want to believe it because it’s so super simple. But it’s dead wrong.

Your fat cells do not store fat that you eat. In fact, when you eat fat, your body has to go through a number of complex extra steps to turn it into energy that can be passed around in the bloodstream. In contrast, carbohydrates are readily and immediately processed into glucose, and that glucose triggers insulin which triggers fat storage. Remember how important those hormones are?

If we eat the right types of fat, our digestive processes and our liver break these down into a different type of molecular energy that our cells can use for energy. Some of these fatty acids and dietary protein can be processed even further by the liver and turned into a small amount glucose for body functions that demand that fuel source (our brain is one example), but this process is so complex it makes your typical “complex carbohydrate” meal look like a bowl of fruit loops in comparison.

You get fat because of carbohydrate intake. You do not get fat because of the fats you eat.

Rather, you can see that dietary fat does very little to raise insulin levels. It still provides energy. And it elevates the sense of being fed so that you’re full and satisfied for much longer after a meal. One of the most powerful ways to turn on leptin (the “full and satisfied” hormone) is to eat healthy fats. Fats take longer to digest, so your stomach stays fuller longer and you naturally increase the time between meals without even thinking about it.

The hormone response to fat is so strong that you just about can’t overeat it. You’ll get sick, almost to the point of throwing up, if you over eat fats. Compare that to carbohydrates. Nobody stops eating carbs until you reach the bottom of the potato chip bag. Often, not even then. There’s no hormone signal to tell you to stop, nothing to signal you’re satisfied, just an endless race back and forth to grocery store for more cereal and sugar.

When your cells are using fatty acids for fuel, whether from dietary sources or as a result of glucagon encouraging the release of stored fat from adipose cells, your body is in a state of ketosis. Ketosis does not mean your body is starving. It just means it’s using fats instead of carbohydrates to keep the lights on. It’s like your body switched over from burning diesel fuel to running on solar power.

And that’s not just a random analogy. Your cells burning ketones instead of glucose produces much less “pollution” to get the same amount of work done. But that’s an article for another day.

But what about fiber? That’s the other macronutrient that comes up as a way to satisfy hunger. We need fiber to keep the digestive processes working smoothly, and there are certain kinds of fiber that are especially helpful for establishing and maintaining healthy bacteria in your intestines.

Fiber can also be an incidental help with controlling hunger, but it’s not nearly as powerful as a signal from fat. Fiber will serve as bulk in your stomach, which can help to slow ghrelin production down, but it doesn’t do much of anything to raise leptin. Without fats to slow down the gastric process, that fiber is only going to stay briefly in your stomach before it moves on, setting the stage for ghrelin to jump back into the spotlight.

There’s another bigger reason to be wary of fiber as the end-all, be-all solution for appetite control. A lot of fiber comes attached to something else that we’re trying to avoid. Carbohydrates. Whole wheat, whole corn, whole rolled oats, whole legumes, basically anything to which the evil marketing monkeys have attached the “whole” word, are going to include as part of their “wholesomeness” a healthy dose of whole glucose and whole inflammation.

No amount of insulin surge is going to be worth whatever fiber you’re getting from these food choices. Get your fiber from whole lettuce, whole broccoli or whole cauliflower, but slather them in avocado oil or butter to keep you satiated.

You may still not be convinced, and you’re hanging onto grandma’s low-fat advice. And margarine. Good gracious.

And certainly, there are many kinds of fat that are bad for you. Almost universally, the oils that come from grains are filled to the brim with inflammatory fats that you should minimize. This includes corn oil, canola oil, vegetable shortening and all their cousins. And, you should look carefully at animal fats when those animals were raised on diets eating grains. Cows were meant to eat grass, not the equivalent of a junk food diet of concentrated corn, soy and wheat carbohydrates. The milk and dairy products from these animals is one step removed from your actually haven’t eaten these same carbohydrate dense foods yourself, and the products of those animals will be both nutrient deprived and inflammatory.

Your body needs fats. Many nutrients are fat soluble, and they won’t be absorbed by your body unless you eat fat with them. Even cholesterol, that horrible villain we keep hearing about, plays a hugely important role in your body. Your cell walls and membranes? Your skin? They are made of cholesterol. Hormones? Most of them start out as a product of cholesterol. That inconsequential organ sitting between your ears? For all intents and purposes, it’s a huge cholesterol blob.

So by all means, go cook up some bug-fed, pasture raised eggs, yolks and all, in a bunch of grass fed butter. Not only will you be amazed at how long you stay satisfied, but the rest of your body will be loving the nutrition you’re passing along with all those healthy fats.

Your Body Needs Real, Bio-Available Electrolytes

At this point, you understand the basic change you can get from controlling your hormones, and you have a basic idea of what change you want to make in your diet to do that. But if you’ve been on the insulin inflammation treadmill for years, your body is still going to push back a bit.

A common condition many new keto dieters encounter is the so-called “keto-flu” that comes along with adapting to a fat metabolism. Any change is uncomfortable, but this initial discomfort has some biology attached to it as well. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix.

When you start out on keto, you’re probably coming from a very carbohydrate rich metabolism, where both your liver and your muscles will have grabbed as much glucose as they can and stored it as glycogen. When you start cutting carbohydrates out of your diet, your body will initially use its stores of liver and muscle glycogen as energy before the glucagon hormone switches on enough to release stored body fat.

Glycogen ties glucose up with a fair bit of water, so when you use this energy your body will release this excess water pretty readily. The good news is that means a quick bit of early weight loss, but you’ll also be flushing along quite a lot electrolytes as this weight leaves your body.

Additionally, once you do start burning stored fat, that metabolic process results in waste carbon dioxide and more water from burning ketones. Your natural instinct will probably be to drink more water as a means of staying satiated as well, so there’s plenty of water that your body is processing.

The lost electrolytes are a big part of why many keto dieters feel fatigued during the adaptation period. A good way to minimize this is to supplement with good quality electrolytes, especially magnesium. Normally we get a lot of magnesium as part of the chlorophyll in green plants, but even if you’re eating an organic vegetable rich diet, so many vegetables are grown in tired, nutrient poor soil and more people are unknowingly magnesium deficient from the get go. Keto adaption just makes it worse.

To help avoid this, generously use natural salts when cooking, for example sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, which has a wide range of minerals in naturally occurring concentrations. Avoid highly distilled bottled water, which has been stripped of all of its mineral content and will attempt to rebalance itself by taking minerals from your body before it leaves you. Drink high-mineral content spring water such as San Pellegrino.

Supplements can be helpful, but it is important to research which ones provide the best bioavailability. There are many types of magnesium supplements, and some are absorbed more effectively than others by different tissues in your body. The cheapest magnesium supplements usually contain magnesium oxide, which is very difficult for your body to absorb. Magnesium citrate is a better alternative, or chelated magnesium (magnesium glycinate) is much better absorbed.

Consider Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) baths, possibly with other added mineral salts. Not only are these extraordinarily relaxing, but minerals are absorbed very effectively through your skin. Our Sunday evening bath is an amazing end to a the usual hectic weeks here, and I sleep like a baby after a hot magnesium soak.

When people, especially physically active folks, hear the word “electrolytes” often their first thought goes to sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. Even if these drinks weren’t loaded with artificial sweeteners, colors and preservatives, the electrolytes in these beverages are synthetically produced and much further away from the natural sources your body is eager to take up. After a hard workout, a liter of natural mineral water is going to quench your thirst in a much more satisfying way than any of these noxious Crayola colored concoctions, and it’s probably cheaper too… That’s a rarity on this diet!

Many Plants, Even Good Plants at the Wrong Times, Cause Inflammation

A big part of feeling good through the adaptation process and beyond is avoiding inflammation.

After reading about the role of insulin-induced inflammation in many diseases, you know I’m very attuned to this now. As we switched to keto and started eating larger portions of a wider variety of vegetables, our whole family became much more aware of how specific vegetables affected each of us. In learning more about this, one of the topics I discovered later than I wished was lectins.

There are many plants that you’ll find are entirely benign. If you think about it, have you ever encountered anyone who has an allergy to something like lettuce?

But there are many plants that provoke reactions from people, and it turns out this isn’t as random as you might think. And many plants that don’t seem to have a visibly adverse effect on you personally may not actually be as good for you as you think.

Many plants evolved chemical defenses to discourage insects or even mammals from eating them regularly. This allowed the plants to survive and spread more easily. This is really no different from plants developing thorns or needles to protect them. By discouraging predators from chewing them to pieces, those plants were afforded more opportunity to thrive.
Many plants have obvious “do not eat” signs on them. Many plants are acutely toxic and will kill you if you eat them. But many plants we eat on a regular basis have, for exactly the same reasons, low levels of toxins in them that may not make you noticeably sick unless you eat them in large quantity. Those same plants may be tolerable in smaller amounts, but worse, they’ll make you sick slowly over time, seemingly without cause.

A good example is many fruits. Fruits are ripened in a way that makes them attractive for birds and mammals to eat, so that the seeds are carried away from the parent plant and deposited somewhere that they have a chance to grow. But before those fruits are naturally ripe, many varieties have toxins on their peels and skins to prevent predators from harvesting the fruit before the seeds might be fully ready. If you’ve ever had a fruit tree and wondered why the birds and bugs don’t feast on all the immature fruits growing on a tree, but suddenly once everything ripens, the whole bushel comes under attack in the space of a few days, this is the reason. The natural consumers of this plant bounty know when it’s ripe and when it’s ready to eat. You have these same instincts when you’re at the grocery store squeezing things.

These natural proteins that protect seeds and plants and fruits are called lectins. They’re nature’s insecticides and they’re designed to discourage you from eating things that either aren’t ripe, or that aren’t really good to eat at all. Many lectins can be neutralized by cooking, and that’s a big reason so many cultures have evolved traditions for cooking many types of foods in very specific ways.

Think about potatoes for a minute. You probably wouldn’t consider for a minute the idea of eating a raw potato, and instinctively you may have some idea that it would make you feel a little sick. But a raw carrot sounds great. Some of this may be conditioning, that you’ve grown up cooking potatoes and eating carrots raw, but somehow this information is in your head and regardless of how it got there, you know you’d better boil that potato thoroughly before it makes its way into your digestive tract.

Another culprit is beans. Beans contain enormous amounts of lectins, and if you work with beans in a recipe you know there’s a specific protocol for soaking, rinsing and cooking them. If you don’t follow this procedure, the people who enjoy your cooking can wind up very sick. The neurotoxin ricin is extracted from castor beans, and it’s actually a lectin. Beans are full of powerful lectins that are virtually impossible to neutralize even with proper cooking technique. That’s why we simply don’t eat them at all here.

There are lectins of some sort or another in most plants, but there are certain families of plants that fit into that category of things that seem harmless so we eat a ton of them even though we shouldn’t. Potatoes would be on the do-not-eat list on carbohydrate basis alone, but others like squash, zucchini, cucumber and eggplant are all full of lectins that can trigger strong responses. My husband isn’t prone to any sort of allergies, but if he even picks around a salad that has cucumbers tossed into it, he’s stomach makes him miserable for hours afterwards.

Learn what vegetables you’re sensitive to, and what vegetables might be good candidates to consider eliminating. If you’re one of those people who thought that green leafy stuff in general just didn’t sit well with you, you might be selective about what you’re putting on your salad until you identify specific culprits. And you may find you can still enjoy those ingredients if you prepare them differently, for example most of the lectins in tomatoes are in the skin and the seeds, so they can be seeded, blanched and peeled to remove them.

For fruits, be aware that many store-bought fruits are chemically ripened with ethylene, leaving most of the lectin content in the fruit’s skin. Because that fruit is shipped while it’s still firm, what you get at the store looks a lot better than what you’d have gotten had they picked it ripe off the tree and shipped it, but it’s not the same as having been ripened on the plant. Try to buy locally grown fruit, in season from organic farmers. The taste will amaze you even if you don’t get to enjoy some of these treats year-round.

Know your body, but also research what foods are good and at what times of year. You’ll probably find several that might have been bothering you in subtle ways that you didn’t fully understand.

Healthy Whole Grain Goodness is a Horrible Lie

Finally, I want to touch on one more big myth that has been literally forced down our throat for so many years that many of you will think I’m a crazy conspiracy theorist.

We know that eating refined carbohydrates are bad from a hormonal perspective, and you can trace much of the rise in diabetes and obesity not just to consumption of sugar but also white flour. Flour is a grain product, so essentially it is the seed portion of the wheat. These tiny wheat berries are packed with all of the essential needs that a baby wheat stalk needs to spout and grow where ever it may fall.Wheat lectin hazard

Nature did not leave these little nuggets of vital energy unprotected, however. The outer casing of a wheat grain is designed to deter insects or omnivores and contains powerful lectins to do exactly that.

Wheat has an interesting history. Humans actually haven’t been eating grains for a very long period of time. Agriculture is something that’s been going on for only a few thousand years, and prior to that we existed by hunting and gathering, eating whatever food we could catch along with what wound up naturally in season. Your body is not designed to eat grains, much less industrial grains, much less industrial grains in the quantities we consume today. The advent of agriculture allowed us to grow mass quantities of calories that could be harvested and stored for long periods and is in many respects the enabler of modern civilization. Unfortunately, it also enabled a modern epidemic of metabolic disorders.

If you still have reason to doubt my thoughts on wheat and grains in general, consider also the history of white bread. In the not too distant past, it was only the wealthy that could afford white flour that had the lectin rich bran and germ removed, and they were roundly ridiculed as having insensitive stomachs that couldn’t handle “peasant” bread made from whole wheat. Beyond that, this white flour bread was typically made using yeasts that fermented for a day or more, another learned social process that deactivated the lectins in the bread flour.

Today, most whole wheat bread not only still contains its full dose of lectins, but instead of being leavened with yeast, chemical rising agents are used to produce bread faster without the delays of resting, rising and fermenting. This leaves the full dose of lectins intact for the consumer. Couple that with the rising use of industrial pesticides and farm soils depleted of minerals that traditionally added a lot of nutritional value to these foods and you can start to appreciate why whole wheat bread is actually a chemical neutron bomb that has no business in your diet.

Obviously, the most well-known lectin in wheat is gluten. It’s that magic ingredient that does so much for us in baking and is one of the reasons so many amazing things can be made out of little else but wheat flour. But it’s also the key ingredient in celiac allergies, leaky gut syndrome and potentially a host of auto-immune problems. Nobody is immune to this, it’s not a genetic yes/no situation, it’s just a question of how much of it an individual body can sustain and for how long. If you wonder about the rise of gluten allergies and celiac disease, you might consider its timing in the context of the rise of “whole wheat” as a health food and the decline of yeast as rising and fermenting agent.

Our politics, our economy and our foreign policy are tied very much to wheat and other industrial grains. They are fed to us, they are fed to the animals we eat, and they are exported to other countries. The amount of money that is spent producing these commodity products is astronomical, and the amount of money spent lobbying the government and the FDA to ensure that these products remain major parts of food pyramids and school lunches is scary.

Many people worry about sugar consumption, but over consumption of grains (even “whole” grains) are every bit as culpable in the rise of metabolic disease.

As I mentioned above, many foods marketed as “high fiber” are derived from wheat bran. Switching to a ketogenic diet may tempt you into loading up with high fiber foods to replace those missing carbohydrates. Don’t be fooled. Get your fiber from fresh vegetables and skip the lectins. If you are hungry, eat healthy fats, including meats, eggs and dairy from pastured or grass-fed animals who didn’t grow up eating the same toxins you’re trying to avoid.

Good Luck on Your Own Keto Journey

Your thoughts on many of these topics may be different than mine, but I hope by sharing some of the places my own travels have led our family will help yours. There are many ways to get to good health. Learning how your body works and how your hormones interact with both what you eat and when you eat it is one success factor. Not being afraid of fat, and understanding that healthy fat is a necessary nutrient, fits into that knowledge. How other components of your diet help or hinder your progress just makes the journey easier. Educating yourself about the role of electrolytes, especially during keto adaptation, will make getting started easier. Learning what foods might affect you (and why) will let you find the ingredients and dishes that really make your energy level leap and your inflammation vanish. And finally, understanding that certain foods, no matter how well they are marketed or promoted, may not be healthy choices, will leave you in much better health.

I know this has been a long post, but I hope it’s been useful and thought provoking. If you have your own thoughts and questions, leave them in the comments below or join me on the KetoPig FaceBook group and follow me on Instagram!

Keto Chili

Now here is a hearty chili with no need for beans in this low carb recipe! I must say it’s very filling and extremely satisfying. I wasn’t sure what it would be like at first. I was thinking maybe more bland but my suspicions subsided when I took my first bite. I love this chili and I love cauliflower, as long as you have enough spices to deliver on the promise of delicious chili-ness, of course.

All those healthy spices are on our side for the win! The cauliflower does its part in adding the bulk like beans would in any other chili recipe. The only difference in this keto chili is there is no soaking anything over night, no lectins, no over-load of carbs and no cooking for hours trying to make sure to kill off those awful lectins. Why have beans when you can have something as healthy, low carb and versatile as cauliflower?

Here’s the trick. We want the cauliflower to take role of the beans in building the chili’s texture, and that’s all about how you chop it up and then cook it reasonably gently without over-stirring. You want to cut the cauliflower into pieces roughly a quarter-inch in size, so slightly larger than beans. The cauliflower will cook down and break up a bit in the crock pot, and when the chili is done you’ll probably have people thinking for sure there are traditional beans in there somewhere. Don’t go too far, however. If you make the cauliflower too small (minced), it’ll break up entirely and you’ll end up with something closer to a paste-like consistency when everything is done.

Keto Chili

Prep Time15 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 24

Ingredients

What you need

Instructions

  • Take out the crock pot and turn on high heat. Cook time is about 2 hours on high heat. 
  • Mix the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, veggie broth, chili powder, cumin, pepper and salt in the crock pot. 
  • Clean and chop the cauliflower into small pieces and add them to sauce, then put the lid on. 
  •  Get the cauliflower started first so that by the time the meat is done the cauliflower will have cooked down.
  • In a big pan over medium heat melt some butter or bacon fat and saute' your chopped onions until golden brown before adding the grass fed beef. 
  • Cook thoroughly then add the chopped garlic. Continue cooking for two to three minutes until the garlic is fragrant. 
  • Transfer the meat to the top of the crockpot, covering the cauliflower and tomato sauce but DO NOT MIX yet. Cover with lid and cook in crock pot for two hours before coming back and stirring it. 
  • You can eat it right away, or let it simmer for an another hour or two for even more complex flavor. As it cooks longer, the chili will get thicker as the cauliflower gets more soft.

Notes

I fit 3 pounds of meat and two small cauliflower heads or one really big cauliflower head and all the other ingredients in a 8 quart crock pot. I want to mention that I used organic crushed tomatoes that were blanched and deseeded. The brand I found also had PBA free lining so for me this was also a win. Find yourself the best ingredients and you'll have the tastiest results!

 

cream of mushroom

Keto Cream of Mushroom Soup

Have you ever looked at what’s in canned cream of mushroom soup? You should be quite horrified. I know I was. It’s not only full of bad ingredients but it’s also 16 carbs per cup! And because condensed cream of mushroom soup is a “secret ingredient” in so many quick holiday meal favorites, you know you wind up eating a lot more of it than you think. If I can help you make your own keto cream of mushroom soup, what’s to stop you using it as the extra super secret ingredient in your own green bean casserole? Although, I’m not a fan of green beans so I’ll make an asparagus casserole using this delicious low carb, keto cream of mushroom recipe. This recipe is less than 8 carbs per cup and is also thick just like what you’d see in a can of the fake cream of mushroom soup. Haha that’s only funny because it’s a true statement. This whole recipe makes a little over 46oz, or about 6 cups. It’s thick almost like the concentrate coming directly out of the can, so if you are eating this as a soup then you’ll need to add more broth or omit 1 Tbsp arrowroot! Hope you enjoy this healthy substitution in a few of your holiday recipes as much as we do!

Keto Cream of Mushroom Soup

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Author: Gina Scheller

Ingredients

What you need

  • 4 Tbsp Regular Butter
  • 24 Oz White mushrooms 3 carbs
  • 1 Medium white onion chopped
  • Whole garlic bulb chopped
  • 2 1/4 Cups of chicken broth Kettle and Fire (2 carbs)
  • 1 Cup Heavy Cream grass fed (16 carbs)
  • 1/2 Cup Whole Milk grass fed (5 and a half carbs)
  • 3 Tbsp Arrowroot 20 carbs

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a big pan before adding the chopped onions. Saute them until golden brown, but not caramelized. 
  • Add the chopped mushrooms at that time and cook for about 15 minutes until all juices have been released. 
  • Add the chopped garlic and continue to cook about 5 minutes giving time for the garlic to bloom. 
  • Then add the broth. I used "Kettle and Fire" brand chicken bone broth with the lion's main mushrooms and I must say, I'll never use anything else for this recipe.
  • You'll want to blend up some of the mushrooms with a stick blender if you have one. If you don't have a stick blender simply remove half of the mushrooms and blend them up the old fashioned way before returning them to the pan. Or you can leave it chunky too! After all, you are the chef in your keto kitchen.
  • In a bowl, whisk the arrowroot, milk and heavy cream together before adding to the pan. Stir to combine.
  •  Within a few minutes you'll have yourself the best cream of mushroom soup you've ever tasted.

The KetoPig loves quality and healthy ingredients, and is pleased to be supported by Kettle and Fire! Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and buying Kettle and Fire products via these links helps support the site. Thank you!

Keto Stuffed Artichokes

Keto Stuffed Artichokes

My Italian family every year made stuffed artichokes of course with bread crumbs and seasoning. Apparently we Italians love our bread so much we would find more ways to eat it, like stuffing it in our vegetables. I grew up eating this delicious Italian dish and I'm happy to be continuing the tradition but with a healthy twist. For this Italian, low carb, keto recipe, there are no bread crumbs.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time50 mins
Total Time1 hr 5 mins
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo

Ingredients

What you need

Instructions

  • Clean the artichoke by rinsing it then turning it upside down. Gently strike it on the counter or bottom of your sink with them the stem pointed up to clear it out of any dirt and repeat until it looks clean. Cut the pointy ends off with scissors. Now you're ready for stuffing! In a bowl add all your seasonings and mix. You can and should taste this seasoning mix before you stuff them making sure it's to your liking. Scoop a half teaspoon of the seasoning to go between each of the artichoke leaves, using the spoon to help pull back them back as you stuff the seasoning down.
  • Use a pot that will fit the artichokes snuggly. If you wanted to make 4 artichokes thats fine, simply double the recipe and find a pot big enough to hold them. You do not want them floating around in the pot. You'll fill the pot with water about half way making sure not to cover the artichokes but add just enough water to help steam them. They will cook on medium low heat for about 1 hour and when a leaf pulls off easily you'll know they are done.
  • If you're not sure if you should eat the heart, let me reassure that you should. It's the best part! Just make sure you push away the tiny hairs and rinse it to make sure all hairs are gone and cut it into quarters and enjoy dipping it in melted butter. So delicious!

Throw the top part out. Only eat the bottom part and try to remove the top part in one sweep of the thumbs as you see in picture.

Low Carb Candied Yams

Thanksgiving and the holidays are around the corner, and for most people this is a season of dietary terror. It’s especially hard because so many recipes we’ve grown up with look like carbohydrate explosions that will take days or weeks to recover from. So while turning some of these dishes into perfect keto-friendly alternatives may be impossible, I’ve definitely been trying to find lower carb versions that still bring those holiday memories back. If you are in maintenance-mode on your keto journey, these are hopefully choices that won’t make your New Year’s resolutions feel like you over-indulged.

And who doesn’t loves candied yams?! In my family it’s a must-have at Thanksgiving and I’m so happy that I can splurge and cook something that’s not only a healthier option but is also  beneficial for my gut bacteria. With absolutely no added sugar I can feel good about what I give my family and they are only to happy to eat something as tasty as this!

My husband was expecting these to come in thick slices, two inches or more, but when I first made this recipe I cut the yams into quarter inch thick slices, closer to what you would use for something like potatoes au gratin. It turns out we really like these thinner yams and they cook quite a bit easier. It may be that we just love the sauce and we seem to get more with each bite this way!

ld? For the same amount of sweet potatoes but with 2 cups sugar and 1 and 1/2 tbsp of maple it comes to 521 carbs for the batch (12 servings), making each serving 43.5 carbs!

Low Carb Candy Yams

Ingredients

  • 4-5 Yams/Sweet Potatoes

Instructions

  • Directions
  • Pre-heat oven to 350 F. degrees.
  • Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into desired shape. Put the potatoes in baking dish you wish to use and set aside.  In a bowl add the remaining ingredients and mix. Pour over your potatoes and cover with foil. Put in the oven for 60 minutes covered, then remove foil and finish baking for 30 minutes uncovered.
  • This keto candied yams recipe makes about 12 servings. It is 196 carbs for the whole batch, making each serving 16.5 carbs! If you would like the recipe to be even more lower carb, then leave out the monkfruit sweetener. That would bring the the whole batch down to  just 148 carbs and each serving to about 12 carbs.  The sauce will be just a bit thinner in consistency (and slightly less “candied”) but it definitely will still fill that spot on your traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu.

Notes

Curious to know how many carbs regular candied yams hold? For the same amount of sweet potatoes but with 2 cups sugar and 1 and 1/2 tbsp of maple it comes to 521 carbs for the batch (12 servings), making each serving 43.5 carbs!
Note: When buying the VitaFiber you’ll get free shipping if you buy 3! Plus the 20% discount.
Happy Thanksgiving!
keto butter cream frosting

Keto Butter Cream Frosting

This is my favorite frosting! It holds together so well. I’ve even left some cookies out on the counter with the frosting on it for a couple day’s and they still looked and tasted delicious! Most regular frosting recipes call for powdered sugar as their main ingredient, and you may think the first thing to try for a lower carb version would be an alternative powdered sweetener. However, I use the granulated because after a lot of experiments I’ve found it blends and tastes even better.

If you do decide to use powdered Monkfruit sweetener, start with 3 Tbsp for this recipe. It takes a light touch to get the right amount of sweetness with the powdered sweetener. I always start adding a little bit more, and then a little bit more, but it’s very easy to go just a little too far and then there’s an odd after taste. This is part of why I like the granulated sweetener better because it seems to avoid this. Powedered Monkfruit works great for whipping cream, but if you decide to use it in your frosting, proceed with caution.

I also do not recommend using heavy cream in this recipe because in my experience it has not worked well. It always curdled on me and I wind up with something like ultra-sweet cottage cheese.

Keto Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Directions
  • First you’ll want to whip that grass fed butter until it is no longer yellow. Add the granulated sweetener and continue to whip for a couple of minutes. It helps get rid of granules so whip it thoroughly. When it seems smooth enough, add the cream cheese and vanilla. You’ll be wowed at how much it looks and tastes like conventional frosting! Perfect for cakes and cookies!

Keto No Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are a tradition in my family. I’m sure most of you out there on this diet have found how hard it is to make keto sugar cookies, or any cookie for that matter. I have made it my mission to make this keto no sugar recipe as healthy as possible while maintaining a sugar cookie taste and texture. After a lot of experiments, I’m pleased to tell you that I’ve found a way! This low carb no-sugar recipe doesn’t crumble like most cookies you’ll fine out there in the keto world of baking. You’ll be so happy rolling out this dough and cutting out the cookies. It will feel like you have your holiday tradition back! Enjoy what keto has to offer while enjoying the traditional baking time with the family. Plus, you’re doing something good to help make good gut bacteria. These keto cookies only get better days later!

Keto No Sugar Cookies

Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time12 mins
Total Time27 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Keto, Low Carb and Paleo
Servings: 32 cookies
Author: Gina Scheller

Ingredients

What you need

Instructions

Directions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350. Baking time is 10-15 minutes depending on how thin or thick you desire.
  • Start with mixing the wet ingredients.   
  • In a separate bowl add all the dry ingredients.
  • Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix with a spoon until it forms a dough.
  • Put the dough in the freezer for 15-30 minutes to chill before rolling it out.
  • You can also leave the dough in the fridge for about 5 days if you want to plan ahead for cookie baking day, or if you just want several days of fresh-out-of-the-oven deliciousness.
  • One tip for this recipe is to not transfer the cookies after you cut them out. It's much easier to roll the dough out and cut the cookies on a piece of parchment paper. Cut the shapes and pull away the dough from in between the cookies. 
  • Then simply lay that set of cookies on the desired pan and pop in oven. Keep in mind the pan you'll use for the cookies and how you roll them out so you can get the most cookies on the pan. 
  • If the eggs you're using are larger than average, then you may need another Tbsp coconut flour. The dough shouldn't stick to the parchment paper. If it does then that means you'll need a bit more coconut flour.
  • Another tip is to set the leftover dough in the freezer in between the bake times so that it makes it easy to work with.

Notes

If the eggs you're using are larger than average, then you may need another Tbsp coconut flour. The dough shouldn't stick to the parchment paper. If it does then that means you'll need a bit more coconut flour. Note: When buying the VitaFiber you'll get free shipping if you buy 3! 

Don’t forget to make this delicious Keto Butter Cream Frosting.

Want to know how many carbs one cookie holds and the Cookie Carb Comparison?

Happy Holiday’s and have fun pigging out keto style!

 

keto no sugar cookies
keto no sugar cookies
keto gingerbread cookies

Keto Cookie Carb Comparison

VitaFiber is what makes these tasty cookies low carb, paleo, keto and such a delicious treat. Just in time for the holidays! For 20% off VitaFiber use coupon code VFGSCH20

For regular gingerbread cookies….

3 and 1/2 cups flour is 308 carbs

3/4 cups brown sugar 150 carbs

3/4 cup Molasses is 135 carbs

For regular gingerbread cookies its 593 carbs for 3 dozen! That’s 18.5 carbs per cookie! This is not including the frosting.

Keto low carb gingerbread cookies…

1 cup of VitaFiber is 48 carbs

1/4 cup of Monkfruit is 48 carbs

1 cup Almond flour is 8 carbs

1 and 1/4 cup Coconut flour is 20 carbs

The whole batch (3 dozen) keto low carb gingerbread cookies is about 124 carbs, making each cookie 3.5 carbs! This is not including frosting.

Click here for the Low Carb Gingerbread Recipe 

Cookie carb comparison for Keto No Sugar Cookies and regular sugar cookies.

For regular sugar cookies…

3 cups flour is 264 carbs

1 cup sugar is 200 carbs

For regular sugar cookies it is 464 carbs for a batch of 3 dozen cookies.

Making each cookie 13 carbs without frosting!

Regular frosting for sugar cookies is 332 carbs for a batch (about 2 cups). So say you frosted 30 cookies thats 11 carbs per cookie. Making each frosted cookie 24 carbs!

Keto no sugar cookies…

1 cup VitaFiber is 48 carbs

1/4 cup Monkfruit is 48 carbs

1 cup almond flour is 8 carbs

1 and 1/2 cup coconut flour is 24 carbs

For keto no sugar cookies it is 128 carbs for a batch of 3 dozen cookies.

Making each cookie 3.5 carbs without frosting.

Click here for the Keto No Sugar Cookies

My keto frosting is 48 carbs for the batch. (about 2 cups). So say you frosted 30 cookies with this, thats about 1.5 carbs per cookie. Making each frosted cookie 5 carbs!

Click here for the Keto Butter Cream Frosting

 

The KetoPig loves quality and healthy ingredients, and is pleased to be sponsored by VitaFiber! Some of the links in this post are sponsored and your buying VitaFiber products via these links helps spport the site while you keeping you healthy too! Thank you!